By Hasan Kwame Jeffries, The Ohio State University
On the third anniversary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Negro Silent Protest Parade, another march took place in New York City. But unlike the 1917 demonstration, where the mood was somber because the protest sought to draw attention to the horrors of lynching and racial terrorism, the atmosphere this time was festive.
Celebratory Parade in Harlem
Rather than protesting a problem, the 1920 march celebrated solutions: Answers to the challenges created by the color line offered by the Honorable Marcus Garvey, the 32-year-old Jamaican-born founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
It is hard to say how many people showed up in Harlem on that early August day in 1920. Some observers placed the figure as high as 50,000. The parade started at the UNIA’s Liberty Hall, on 138th Street, and ended at the old Madison Square Garden on 26th Street.
The onlookers must have marveled at what they saw: hundreds of Black men dressed in full military regalia, members of the African Legion, the UNIA’s paramilitary outfit, marching in precise formation. And an equal number of Black women marched, too, members of the Black Cross Nurses, the UNIA’s version of the Red Cross, outfitted in white.
Festive Ambiance at the Parade
The thousands who gathered must have also enjoyed the sounds they heard, the toe-tapping tunes played by UNIA bands, and the revving engines of the UNIA Motor Corps—cars were still cutting-edge technology.
And they surely must have taken pride in the Black Nationalist themed banners and placards the marchers carried. “Africa Must Be Free”, read one. “We Want a Black Civilization” read another. And of course, there were plenty of signs featuring the UNIA motto: “One God! One Aim! One Destiny!”
Purpose of the Parade
At the head of the parade was Garvey himself. In only three years’ time, the native of Jamaica had built the UNIA into the largest African American organization in the country. By 1920, it had well over 1 million members, belonging to 500 branches, scattered across three dozen states.
Garvey believed in pomp and circumstance. It was necessary, he said, to instill in African Americans a sense of pride in being Black. This was the reason for the massive parade to mark the start of the UNIA’s first annual, month-long, international convention. It was also the reason why Garvey wore a military-inspired uniform, complete with epaulettes and medals, and topped off with a feather-plumed Napoleonic bicorn hat.
This article comes directly from content in the video series African American History: From Emancipation through Jim Crow. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Garvey’s Vision and Garveyism
When the parade reached Madison Square Garden, the crowd filed inside. The building had permanent seating for 8,000 people and every seat was quickly taken. The UNIA conventioneers filled about 2,000 of them, while regular UNIA members and the general public occupied the rest.
When Garvey took the stage, he shared his bold vision for rescuing African Americans from Jim Crow. Garvey urged his followers to do three things: to put the race first, to build wealth through Black-owned businesses, and to emigrate to Africa. The last point was a central tenet of Garveyism. Garvey insisted that African Americans had no future in the United States, so they had to reclaim Africa. They had to return to their ancestral homeland.
Black Masses Identifying with Garveyism
Garvey’s philosophy resonated with the Black masses for several reasons. First, it offered them a blueprint for enjoying their freedom rights. In 1920, the fundamental civil and human rights that formerly enslaved people had identified as the crux of freedom seemed farther away than they did at the moment of emancipation, given how entrenched Jim Crow had become.
Second, Garveyism spoke to African Americans’ strongly held belief in Black nationalism. Black nationalism was an approach to improving Black life that centered on racial solidarity and Black institution building.
And third, Garveyism reflected Black emigration sentiment. The idea that Black people had to find some place other than where they were in order to thrive was a deeply rooted strain of Black political thought. In 1879, for Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, who had been born into bondage, that place was Kansas, not the Deep South. Forty years later, for Garvey, Africa was the answer.
And even though the Africa that existed in Garvey’s imagination was a fiction—no place existed with enough resources to rescue African Americans from a white supremacist world—the idea was grounded in a close reading of Black prospects in America, and a thoughtful, albeit overly wishful, assessment of Black possibilities in Africa.
Common Questions about the 1920 UNIA Parade in Harlem
Unlike the 1917 demonstration, where the mood was somber because the protest sought to draw attention to the horrors of lynching and racial terrorism, the atmosphere this time was festive. Rather than protesting a problem, the 1920 march celebrated solutions, answers to the challenges created by the color line offered by the Honorable Marcus Garvey, the 32-year-old Jamaican-born founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (the UNIA).
Marcus Garvey believed in pomp and circumstance. It was necessary, he said, to instill in African Americans a sense of pride in being Black. This was the reason for the massive parade to mark the start of the UNIA’s first annual, month-long, international convention. It was also the reason why Garvey wore a military-inspired uniform, complete with epaulettes and medals, and topped off with a feather-plumed Napoleonic bicorn hat.
Marcus Garvey had the bold vision of rescuing African Americans from Jim Crow. Garvey urged his followers to do three things: to put the race first, to build wealth through Black-owned businesses, and to emigrate to Africa. The last point was a central tenet of Garveyism. Garvey insisted that African Americans had no future in the United States, so they had to reclaim Africa. They had to return to their ancestral homeland.
